,'l

NOAH WEBSTER.

county in any State is disabled to prevent
the execution of a statute law of the legis-
lature. It is on this principle, and this
alone^ that a free State can be governed;
it is on this principle alone that the Amer-
ican States can exist as a confederacy of
republics. Either the several States must
continue separate, totally independent of
each other, and liable to all the evils of
jealousy, dispute, and civil dissension, —
nay, liable to a civil war, upon any clash-
ing of interests, — or they must constitute
a general head, composed of representatives
from all the States, and vested with the
power of the whole continent to enforce
their decisions. There is no other alterna-
tive. One of these events must inevitably
take place, and the revolution of a few
years will verify the prediction."

In answering possible objections to the
scheme, he rests in the power of the people,
who " forever keep the sole right of legisla-
tion in their own representatives, but divest
themselves wholly of any right to the ad-
ministration." He refuses to believe that
there is any danger from centralization so
long as the people use the power which is